Song of Horror

THE GAME Song of Horror’s core idea

THE CONCEPT

Song of Horror is an old school inspired, third person survival horror, evocative of the eternal fear of what cannot be understood. Take control of up to 16 characters who have been dragged, throughout time, into a story for which they are not prepared.

THE BEGINNING

It’s an ordinary Friday in the life of Daniel Noyer, washed-up advertiser and former entrepreneur who has fallen on hard times lately. Currently the lowest of the low at a publishing house, you receive an urgent, yet seemingly straightforward assignment: to find the company’s most important client, the renowned writer Sebastian P. Husher, who hasn’t been heard from in weeks. Upon your arrival at Husher’s mansion, you realize something’s wrong. The lights, still turned off at the onset of nightfall, reveal that no one is home. The dog, warned about at the entrance, is nowhere to be found. The main door, left ajar, hints at a hallway drowned in shadows. And an eerie, haunting melody, pierces a thundering silence.

THE STORY

Song of Horror’s story is not a by-product of its development but the main course of the menu. Each chapter is part of a bigger picture, narrated at a pace that will allow the player to be submerged into its depths, going further and further down this dark spiral until the secrets finally come to light. Both people and locations, from the first to the last, have been granted a carefully elaborated backstory which maintains coherence with the main plot. The characters’ personality, their relationship with each other and their psychology have received as much attention as required in order to make them unique, believable and enriching to the game’s world.

A THRILLING, MOVIE-LIKE EXPERIENCE

Join Daniel in a spine-chilling tale of horrors. Unravel a dreadful mystery of deep, unknown roots, a mystery threatening to destroy him. The use of automated mobile cameras along with a collection of unsettling music themes ensure that the tension remains constant and relentless.

16 PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

Control Daniel as well as several other men and women, both acquaintances and strangers. They will explore an array of locations, designed by actual architects, solving riddles while avoiding an untimely end. How far will each of them go? Who will continue their tale alongside Daniel? That is up to you.

NORMAL, EVERYDAY PEOPLE

No heroes, no supermen, no superwomen. Real-life, ordinary folks. From the advertiser to the sales director, from the alarms technician to the doctor and the shop clerk. None of them can make it on their own.

CAREFUL EXPLORATION

The devil’s in the details, or so they say. Each clue might have a meaning; every observation can be crucial. There is no prize for first arrival at the end line; the prize is to arrive at all.

LIFE IS FLEETING

There is no health nor sanity bar. The only thing that matters is: can you continue? If you crumble midway, will the next character make it?

DEATH HAS MANY DOORS

There are no combats, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to fight. There are no enemies, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t being hunted. There are no defenses, and yes, that does mean you must run, hide, and do

THE MECHANICS

Game’s main rules

Although Song of Horror is a game fundamentally based on its narrative, introducing both different and interesting mechanics has always been a concern for the development team, one that has been assigned as much effort and dedication as the rest of the game.

THE STORY UNFOLDS

Song of Horror is divided into chapters. In each of them, you will visit a different location while delving deeper and deeper into the mystery.

PERMANENT DEATH

At the beginning of most chapters, you will be able to choose among several characters. The one you pick will be the first one to face the unknown. Each playable character has one single chance; if he or she dies, another one will have to take over from that point. You will be able to finish any given chapter if at least one character remains, but if none should make it through, you will have to try said chapter again. The set of available characters will be different in each chapter (though some of the survivors might appear at a later point). A character’s role in the story is automatically cut short if you lose him or her.

NO GOING BACK

There are no save points in Song of Horror. Your progress will be stored after each chapter, or if you select the “Save and Quit” option. Whenever you resume the game, however, you’re once more on your own.

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Song of Horror features puzzles and riddles of different natures, ranging from little daily life obstacles to sinister games where your life is at stake.

THE PRESENCE

There are no enemies in Song of Horror. There is no one to shoot, nor anything tangible to fight; instead, you will be haunted by twisted manifestations of an eldritch, primeval horror. You can run, and you can hide, but it won’t always be enough. Furthermore, those are not the only actions you may attempt. You will have a variety of possible courses of action you will need to use in order to survive. Your characters’ life —and resolve!— will depend on your choices. You won’t always be actively hunted by peril. Often, it will lie in wait for you. A slow, steady and careful advancement is your best tool.

A FIRST TRIAL BY FIRE…

…or the challenge of transforming an idea and a bunch of systems into something that resembles a game. That was the nature of the beast we faced when, having already uploaded our first teaser trailer, we fixed our gazes on our next goal: the making of a video which could open a window into Song of Horror’s playable reality.

The Presence, our teaser, enjoyed a very good reception among our followers but both them and us wanted more. People wanted to see something beyond a mere trailer, and we wanted to show a first contact with Song of Horror’s practical meaning, with the game experience that, bit by bit, we’re driving forward.

The main challenge came on two fronts: the purely technical one (or the implementation and tuning of mechanics, character animations and graphical work) and the temporal one, for the date of our Kickstarter draws near and, by then, we need to have produced a trailer which is up to par.

Work intensity rose exponentially as our self-imposed deadline for the gameplay video got closer. 70 workhours and a week later, on the very last day that we had according to our own planning, we finished shooting the last scene. Now Manuel, our musician and sound wizard, has to include all the melodies and sound effects which couldn’t make it in time to be ingame.

We’ve had little sleep, we’ve fought, we’ve sweated, we’ve feared and we’ve bitten our nails almost to the bone, but we have made it, and we are very happy with the result. Our only wish right now is that so are you when we show it to you, friends.

Song of Horror is a survival horror game. Its original idea was born in 2013 among a small group of enthusiasts, who were nostalgic for the times when they used to spend entire nights, trembling in fear, trying to survive the masterpieces of the genre.

The game is conceived with the intent of reclaiming these treasured sensations from before mainstream survival horror titles adopted, for the most part, a more action-oriented approach. Defenselessness, constant terror, that “NO WAY I’M GOING DOWN THERE” moment… all of it, wrapped with an enthralling story, one that does not let you quit the game even when a part of you is wishing you did just that. All of that is what we want to bring back.

The question we asked ourselves was: how can we preserve that and, at the same time, benefit from the advantages modern games have? Since August 2014, with the use of Unreal Engine 4, we have devoted ourselves full time to answering that question.

Recent Comments

Indie games

1. Crowdfunding – accountability and expectations • With the ever-growing popularity of services like Kickstarter, or Indiegogo it is worth taking a look at the problems such platforms may suffer from. 2. What makes an indie game? • Is not being tied to a producer enough to be an indie developer? We take a look at some of the less straightforward traits of indie games. 3. Is there a recipe for success indie games can follow? • Every week dozens of indie games are released but few of them reach the popularity of Minecraft or Braid. We take a look to see why it is so. 4. Notable indie developers • There is a number of developers all gamers should know, even if they don’t play indie games. We present to you some of them to kickstart your own searches.